Method for producing round-cornered cabinets and like pieces of furniture



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June 16, 1959 A 2,890,731

M METHOD FOR PROD ING CORNERE ABINETS PIE AND LIKE OF FU TU Filed Oct. 24, 19

INVENTOR.

mvom (fin-"E BY M406 M United States iPatent Ofi 2,890,731. Patented June 16, 1959 METHOD FOR PRODUCING ROUND-CORNERED "CABINETS AND LIKE PIECES OF FURNITURE Alessandro Maifei, Pavia, Italy Application October 24, 1956, Serial No. 618,140

Claims priority, application Italy October 28, 1955 3 Claims. (Cl. 144-309) My invention relates to methods for producing modern styled pieces of furniture and, more particularly, it re lates to a new and improved method for carrying out certain important steps in the mass or factory production of round-cornered pieces of furniture, i.e. of pieces of furniture such as desks, cabinets, and the like, of the type including at least two outer flat or plane faces and a cylindrically rounded corner wherein both said fiat faces are adjacent and flush with the rounded corner.

a My novel method of factory production has been devised mainly to improve the mass production of sewing machines or of writing machines-carrying desk-like cabinets, but obviously it may be advantageously adapted for mass production of other articles of manufacture the production of which might involve problems similar to the ones out-lined below.

It is known to those skilled in the art to which this invention belongs that a serious drawback in the mass production of round-cornered pieces of furniture consists in the fact that the various steps of smoothing, lacquering, varnishing and polishing the various outer faces of the article to a uniform and shining appearance cannot be performed by making use of high-production self-feeding machine tools, because such machines may operate only on flat plate-like elements. Such steps included in the production of said round-cornered pieces therefore must be performed by hand workmanship or by making use of mechanically driven but hand-borne and operated small machine tools.

Accordingly, at present the performance of such steps of manufacture includes a remarkable amount of labor and man-hours, and the quality of the produced pieces of furniture, from the point of view of the satisfactory and uniform finish of the outer faces of the article and of the rounded corners adjacent therewith, mainly depends upon the care and the attention given by the workman. The production of the outer faces and corners of the piece as separate elements, to be assembled upon finishing thereof, is objectionable too, because the various assembling steps damage the polished surfaces and the several joints may not be concealed as desirable,

A method of producing articles of manufacture of the type referred to above and which may be carried out so as to overcome the above described limitations and drawbacks therefore would be very desirable.

Having the above said objections to present methods in mind, it is therefore an object of this invention to provide a new and advantageous method for the factory production of pieces of furniture of the type referred to above, and including at least two plane outer wall surfaces and a round-surfaced corner wherein said plane surfaces are adjacent and flush with the rounded corner surface, comprising the steps of producing one plane article of manufacture having one plane outer surface actuating the development on one plane of the said wall surfaces and of the said corners surface positioned therebetween, of carrying out at least part of the various grinding, smoothing, varnishing, polishing and/or, other possible finishing operations by making use of plane-working high production machine tools, on said one plane outer surface, and of bending the said plane article to form said round-surfaced corner and to set said wall surfaces at their angular relationship required in the piece of furniture to be produced.

More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved method as above, wherein the said one article of manufacture includes rigid wall portions adapted to form the said plane Wall surfaces and one or more pliable corner portion or portions adapted to be bent to form said rounded corner or corners.

Preferably, the said one article of manufacture consists in one substantially thin and pliable outer surfacesforming layer of pliable material, of plywood for example, and of thicker stiffening inner layer forming plate members, made of wood, wooden conglomerate and the like, juxtaposed against the back face of and secured to, by glueing for example, the said one outer surfaces-forming layer at the said wall portions thereof, while both the faces of the said latter layer are left uncovered at the said corner portion or portions thereof for leaving to said layer its ability of being subjected to the bending step at the said corner portion or portions thereof.

Another object of this invention is to provide, in an improved method as above, ancillary stiffening layer members adapted to be juxtaposed on and removably secured to the back surface of said one pliable layer at the said corner portion or portions thereof, between the said innerlayer stiffening members, for provisionally .having the said one article of manufacture made wholly rigid for better treatment of same with said plane Working machine tools.

' A further object of this invention is to provide, in one article of manufacture as above, including rigid wall portions and pliable corner portions, ancillary stiffening layer members having the same thickness as' the said stiffening layer members secured to said wall portions, so that the said one article is made of uniform thickness at any point thereof, in view of its introduction into and treatment by self-feeding high-production plane working machine tools, say in and by machine tools wherein conveying means, say a conveyor belt, feedsthe plate-like articles in a working position of the several glueing, pressing, grinding, smoothing, varnishing, drying, polishing and/or other tools and means.

Other objects and advantages of this invention are in part obvious and in part will be made apparent as this description proceeds.

Other objects of my invention and the invention itself 7 will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which my invention appertains from the disclosure of this application and as set forth in the specification thereof and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming an essential component of this disclosure, and wherein:

Figure l is a perspective view illustrating, in a somewhat simplified way, a simple piece of furniture, say a sewing machine cabinet, which may be advantageously factory produced by making use of my invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view likewise illustrating the one plane article of manufacture designed for producing three wall surfaces and two rounded comers of said piece;

Figure 3 illustrates the article of Fig. 2, upon performance of the said finishing steps, and made ready for bending same in the shape shown in Figure 4, wherein the article of Figs. 2 and 3 is likewise illustrated in the shape in which the same is designed to form an important component of the piece of furniture shown in Fig. 1;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the details ofconstruction for removably securing of the ancillary layer member or members for carrying out the method of the invention;

Figure 6 illustrates the element of Fig. 5, upon removal of the ancillary layer member; and

Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view of one corner portion of a piece of furniture of the type considered, as produced by making use of and completing the element of Figs. and 6.

Like reference numerals refer to like portions, parts and members throughout the several figures, either where illustrated in simplified way and in more detailed shape and, more particularly, for better understanding of the invention and of the mode of carrying out same, the like numerals in various portions prior to the bending steps, i.e. in the still plane article of manufacture, are associated with the symbol Further, in the following disclosure and in the accompanying drawing the various finishing steps and the machines and means of which is made use therefor will be neither explained nor illustrated, in view of the fact that such steps, said machines and the mode of operation thereof appertain to common knowledge of those skilled in the range of craftsmanship to which this invention relates.

As this invention proceeds, the embodiment of the present invention will be described as applied to manufacture of simple types of cabinets, wherein the outer layers are made of plywood and the stiffening layers are made of compound wooden material.

Obviously, such pliable and/or stiffening materials may be modified, completed and/or substituted by any suitable equivalent other ones, say by wooden conglomerates, plastics, plastic laminate and the like, and/or such outer surface forming pliable material may be left uncovered or coated with other materials, say wooden or plastic veneer, or the like.

Still further, in the disclosure set forth and in the appended claims the expression finishing operations is intended to include and cover any possible grinding, smoothing, lacquering, varnishing, drying or setting, polishing or other operations at least part of which are conventionally performed on already assembled pieces of furniture and which may be also performed on flat platelike components or assemblies in and by high-production machine tools limited to operate on flat surfaces. Likewise, the expression forming operations will include the various possible glueing, juxtaposing, pressing and machining operations which may be advantageously performed on flat or plate-like pieces.

Referring now to Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive: in making apparent my invention, let us assume that a simple piece of furniture as shown in Fig. 1 is to be factory produced, i.e. a cabinet including a front plane and smooth wall surface 10 adjacent to and flush with two lateral rounded corners 11, and two side wall surfaces 12 adjacent to and flush with said corners 11 too. Accordingly, the outer front and side surfaces of the cabinet includes one smooth and jointless surface including plane wall portions and cylindrically rounded corner portions comprised between confining with and merging in said plane wall portions.

According to my invention, in view of production of the above described cabinet of Fig. 1, an article of manufacture as shown in Fig. 2 is first constructed. Said article comprises one outer surface forming layer 13 of pliable material, say of plywood, dimensioned and shaped to represent the development on one plane of the said front, side and corner surfaces. In other words, the outer face of said layer 13 includes a central wall portion 10, two end wall portions 12 and two intermediate corner portions 11 in such relative arrangement and dimensional relationship in the said one plane that, upon bending at 90 the layer at its portions 11', the said several portions may be set in the condition to form the said front, side and corner portions of the cabinet.

- Preferably, the said outer surface-forming layer 13 is made of pliable material, say plywood, adapted to be bent at the radius assumed for the said rounded corners 11. Possibly, the pliableness of said material may be improved at its corner portions 11' by reducing its thickness, or by cutting in its back or inner face a plurality of narrow cuts, or by other meansknown to those skilled in the art. Heat treatments and/or steam or liquid treatment for improving the pliableness of such material are however possible too, but such mode of operation is to be avoided, if possible, to prevent injury to the finished polished outer surface thereof.

The back surfaces of wall portions 10 and 12' of said layer are provided and made integral with stiffening inner layers 14 and 15, respectively, juxtaposed and secured thereon, say by glueing, electronic welding or other suitable known processes. The fact that the said stiffening layers 14 and 15 are coplanar in their juxtaposed relationship with the said one plane layer 13 makes possible the pressing or other treatment in plane or cylinder presses, plate welders and other typical mass-production machines and arrangements.

On the back surface of layer 13, at its corner portions 11', and in the spacings confined by the edges of said stiffening inner layers 14 and 15, ancillary layer members 16 are removably located and secured to the adjacent elements described above. Said ancillary members are designed to fill said spacings and provisionally make rigid said corner portions 11'. Further, by applying ancillary members 16 of like thickness and consistency as the adjacent stiffening layers 14 and 15, the whole plane article shown in Fig. 2 is provisionally made of uniform thickness and consistency at any point thereof.

From the above it will be readily understood that the said one structure actuated by the described article of Fig. 2 is a plate-like one, which may be worked into and by various plane operating machine tools for fast and uniform performance of the desired finishing operations on the plane outer surface of layers 13, including all the said wall and corner portions 10', 12' and 11'.

Upon performance of said finishing operations, or of at least part of same, as desired for taking advantage of the plate-like shape of said one plane article of manufacture, the said ancillary layer members 16 are removed from the said article and the corner portions 11 of the pliable layer thereof are therefore brought back into their original pliable status and adapted to be curved at the desired radius for shaping the article in the shape shown in Fig. 4, wherein the wall portions 10 and 12, stiffened by the said inner layers 14 and 15, respectively, are set to form a right angle therebetween and the corner portions of the outer layer are curved to form the desired rounded corners 11.

The said article is now set in the required state for fixing in position the front Wall surface, the side wall surfaces and the cylindrically rounded corners of the cabinet of Fig. 1, without prejudice to the finished outer surfaces thereof.

Any suitable releasable securing means may be made use of for provisionally securing the said ancillary layer members 16 against the inner faces of portions 11 and between the side edges of the stiffening inner layers 14 and 15, in coplanar relationship therewith. In Figs. 5 and 6 a preferred embodiment of such securing means is shown.

According to said embodiment, the said ancillary layer member 16 (but one of which is fragmentarily shown in the accompanying drawings) is constructed of the same materials used for producing the adjacent stiffening layers 14 and 15 and removably connected to the edge of the latter layers by means of wooden strip elements 17 (Fig. 5). Said elements 17 are slidably fitted into mortises cut in part into the side edges of said ancillary member and in part into the in-facing side edges of the adjacent stiffening layers 14 and 15 made integral with the said adjacent portions 10' and 12, respectively, of the one pliable outer layer 13.

In Fig. 6 longitudinal cuts 18 in the in-facing edge portions of the said stiffening inner layers 14 and 15 and co-operating cuts 19 in the respectively opposed edges of the ancillary layer member 16 are shown. Said cuts 18 and 19, when the said ancillary member 16 is set in the spacing comprised between said inner layers 14 and 15 and against the back face of layer 13, are set in coplanar and aligned relationship and co-operate to form the said montises wherein the said strip members or elements 17 may slidably fit.

It may be readily understood therefore that the invention provides further a simple and advantageous means for removably securing the said ancillary members 16 to the said article of manufacture, in view of easy handling and working same into and by plane working machine tools for said finishing operations, while the said ancillary members or elements may be readily removed, without harm to the outer surfaces and the polish of the same due to the bending of said one outer layer 13, to form the desired rounded corners 11 of the cabinet.

For completing the corner portions of the cabinet, a shaped corner post 20 of the type shown in Fig. 7, or an equivalent thereof, may be fitted and secured, by glueing for example, in the in-facing concave spacing defined by the curved inner surface of the bent portion 11 of the outer layer and the in-facing edge portions of the stiffening inner wall layers 14 and 15, so that the structure of the cabinet acquires the desired structural strength. The fitting of the said shaped corner post 20 may be made during the bending of corner portion 11' of the outer layer, if desired.

It will be understood that each of the steps and/or of the several advantageous features of my new method, as described above, or two or more together, may also find useful application in other types of factory production of pieces of furniture and of similar articles of craftsmanship differing from the piece above described.

While I have illustrated and described my invention but in one mode of carrying out the same, and more particularly as embodied in the production of a wooden cabinet of very simple shape, I do not intend to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications, adaptations and changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit and the scope of my invention.

For example, by applying the teaching of this invention, pieces of furniture including a plurality of either horizontal or vertical rounded corners, adjacent to one or more plane wall surfaces, may be produced too, upon the provision of one plate-like article of manufacture having at least a portion corresponding to the wall portion of the outer surface of the product to be made, to which the various corners, forming an angle therebetween, are adjacent, and comprising the various other wall portions adjacent to said corners.

Without further considerations, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of this invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of '66 equivalents of this invention, as defined in and by the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to have protected by Letters Patent is:

1. A method of producing a finished rounded corner comprising the steps of forming a fiat composite board having a fiat sheet of pliable material and at least one reinforcing layer comprising two parts spaced from each other in a direction parallel to said flat sheet permanently attached to said sheet on the same side thereof; removably arranging a separate, independent support member in the space between the two spaced parts of said reinforcing layer, so as to form a continuous support for said sheet of pliable material between said spaced parts of said reinforcing layer; finishing the opposite side of said sheet; removing said removably arranged independent support member; and bending said composite board at that portion of said sheet which was previously supported by said independent support member, thereby forming a finished rounded corner.

2. A method of producing a finished rounded corner comprising the steps of forming a fiat composite board having a fiat sheet of pliable material and at least one reinforcing layer comprising two parts spaced from each other in a direction parallel to said flat sheet permanently attached to said sheet on the same side thereof; removably arranging a separate, independent support member in and filling the space between the two spaced parts of said reinforcing layer, so as to form a continuous support for said sheet of pliable material between said spaced parts of said reinforced layer finishing the opposite side of said sheet; removing said removably arranged independent support member from said space, and bending said composite board at that portion of said sheet which was previously supported by said independent support member, thereby forming a finished rounded corner.

3. A method of producing a finished rounded corner comprising the steps of forming a fiat composite board having a fiat sheet of pliable material and at least one reinforcing layer consisting of two parts spaced from each other in a direction parallel to said flat sheet permanently attached to said sheet on the same side thereof; removably arranging a separate, independent support member in and filling the space between the two spaced parts of said reinforcing layer, so as to form a continuous support for said sheet of pliable material between said spaced parts of said reinforcing layer, said two parts of said reinforcing layer and said support member having substantially the same thickness finishing the opposite side of said sheet; removing said removably arranged inde pendent support member from said sheet; and bending said composite .board at that portion of said sheet which was previously supported by said independent support member, thereby forming a finished rounded corner.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,630,858 Meyercord May 31, 1927 1,981,494 Berg Nov. 20, 1934 2,023,066 Curtis Dec. 3, 1935 2,134,999 Crouch Nov. 1, 1938 

